In all but three countries of the world,
governments supported by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have stopped
transmission of this crippling virus. This year, fewer children (171) have been
paralyzed by polio, in fewer parts of the world than ever before.

Since
the launch of the GPEI’s Emergency Action Plan in May 2010, India – long thought
to be the hardest place from which to eradicate polio – has stopped polio
transmission. Polio now survives among the most marginalized communities of just
three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Polio eradication is
at a pivotal point, and the three countries and the partners supporting them are
all in emergency mode. A massive surge of human resources – over 4000 people –
has been deployed to assist the countries, but local ownership is at the heart
of these efforts:

Traditional leaders take part in the selection of
vaccinators in Nigeria

‘Permanent’ polio vaccination teams operate in
insecure parts of Afghanistan to ensure children can be vaccinated regardless of
who controls the area

The overall administration at a district-level in
Pakistan – not the health sector alone – is accountable for reaching every child
in the area with vaccine

A single focal point, a polio ‘tsar’, reports on
the country’s progress to the head of state in all three countries.

In
2012, 398 million children have been vaccinated against polio. This week alone,
nearly 20 million children are being vaccinated, in eight countries in Africa
where children still face a high risk of polio paralysis.

Failure to
eradicate polio would lead eventually to at least 200,000 children paralyzed
worldwide every year, and as recent outbreaks in polio-free areas such as
Tajikistan and China have shown, increasingly, adults have also been paralyzed,
and killed. Only eradication will ensure a polio-free world. And prove that
every child, everywhere, can be reached with life-saving vaccines.